Can you please give any credible proofs as to why I must not trust the Book of Mormon?

The Bible tells us in 1st John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (NKJV). The Mormons claim to be of God, so our responsibility is to “test” them, to see if “they are of God.” How do we test them? We test them by the Word of God! When the apostle Paul came to a city called Berea and preached to the Jews there, we read in Acts 17:11: “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, EXAMINING THE SCRIPTURES DAILY TO SEE WHETHER THESE THINGS WERE SO” (NASB). So, like the Bereans we will “examine the Scriptures” to see if what the Mormons claim about the Book of Mormon is really true. We will confine our examination to three areas.

The Book of Mormon ADDS TO THE WORD OF GOD. In Revelation 22:18 we read, “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.” Proverbs 30:5-6 command the same thing: “Every word of God is pure…Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar” (NKJV). It is a most serious thing to “add to His words” and yet this is what the Book of Mormon does! I had two Mormon missionaries come to my door one day and they told me, “The Bible is a wonderful book, but we have something better; we have the Book of Mormon.” They went on to say, “The Bible is like “general math,” but the Book of Mormon is “advanced algebra.” They were clearly admitting to “adding to the Bible,” but in their opinion it was “better than the Bible.” In our short conversation they also said, “The Book of Mormon isn’t all we have, our prophet Joseph Smith was also inspired to write two other books, “Doctrine and Covenants” and “The Pearl of Great Price.” So, by their own admission they have “added to the Word of God,” something that is clearly condemned in the passages cited above.

The Book of Mormon HAS A FALSE PROPHET. Joseph Smith boldly declared many prophecies that added to the prophecies of the final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. We saw from Revelation 22:18 that no one was to add to “the words of the prophecy of this book,” so that in and of itself makes Joseph Smith a FALSE PROPHET. But there’s another reason that marks him out a false prophet; his prophecies never came true! Listen to the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 18:21-22: “And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has NOT SPOKEN?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously.” We will give two concrete examples of Mr. Smith’s false prophecies. He prophesied (in Doctrine and Covenants 84:114-115) that New York would be destroyed if they rejected the Mormon gospel and he prophesied that the rebellion of South Carolina and the War between the States would result in a world-wide war upon all nations. Neither of these prophesies came to pass!

The Book of Mormon HAS A FALSE GOSPEL. If you read through the book of Mormon (and their other two books as well) you will see that the “gospel according to Mormonism” is rooted in GOOD WORKS. One of their so-called apostles (Bruce McConkie), author of the book Mormon Doctrine, said that the gospel is “the plan of salvation that embraces all of the laws, principles, doctrines, rites, ordinances, acts, powers, authorities, and keys necessary to save and exalt men.” That’s quite a mouthful! And yet there is not one syllable in these words that mention the true gospel that saves sinners. The apostle Paul declared in 1st Corinthians 15:1, 3-4: “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand…For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” The gospel that saves is all about the DEATH, BURIAL and RESURRECTION of the Lord Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with laws, rites, ordinances, acts or any other things men do to try to make themselves righteous before God. One must simply “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved” (Acts 16:31). Any other gospel is a FALSE GOSPEL that we must reject. Paul spoke to this in Galatians 1:6-8: “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” Mormons are guilty of this very same thing my friend, for they are peddling a false gospel in the Book of Mormon. (238.1) (DO)